Christmas can be a tough time financially for families. Children want so many things these days, and many are spoiled by multiple gifts from extended families. Some wise parent came up with the idea of the 4 Gifts for Christmas Challenge. The premise is that they would only buy each child 4 things: something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read (or, in the case of pets, eat).
Disclosure: The 4 Gifts for Pets Giveaway Hop is sponsored by CleverPet. The opinions and ideas in this post are my own and are uninfluenced by any other person or business. The individual sponsors are responsible for their giveaway prizes including shipping. Some links in this post are affiliate links (*), and we may receive a small commission if you order through those links.
Those of us who have pets in addition to or instead of children, also often have spoiled “pet children”. I know mine are. I shop for them all year long, not to mention all the products we get to review for the blog. They have a lot of stuff! I still can’t help myself from wanting to buy them Christmas gifts as well though. So we’ll try to narrow down our list, even though some of the things on it might be a bit too extravagant for this year!
We did this 4 Gifts hop two years ago, and it was a lot of fun. I especially liked looking back to see if I had finally gotten the crew everything on the list (most we did, in time)! This year our esteemed hostesses – Kol’s Notes and A Dog Walks into a Bar – upped the game and added an awesome giveaway for our readers to enter, not just here, but on many other blogs as well!
Here’s what’s on our list this year:
Want – CleverPet Hub. I am always saying how smart my dogs are, and smart dogs want to be mentally challenged! The Clever Pet Hub is an electronic game console with lights and a compartment that opens up to dispense treats as part of each game. Luke and Cricket would have such a blast with this, and what great stimulation it would be, especially on long cold winter days when we’re stuck inside more. This is the grand prize in the giveaway so be sure to enter! I wish we could!!
Need – DogTread treadmill for our Labrador retriever mix Luke. Luke doesn’t play ball as intensely as his sister does. If we don’t have time for both a walk, along with a game of ball to keep Cricket happy, he is bored and fidgety in the evening. That’s even when the weather is good! While Clever Pet could provide some mental stimulation, we need his joints to stay loose as well, because of his bad knees (luxating patellas). Often throughout the winter and spring our yard and trails look like the photo below, and we need an alternative to get him moving!
Wear – ComfortFlex Sport Harness* for our beagle Cricket. I got Luke one of these harnesses which we use for when we do nose works games. He knows what it means when I get it out. I’ve said before that I love this harness because it is so easy to put on. Cricket has a hard time staying still to have a harness put on, so I would love to get one of these to help get us out the door quicker when we’re headed for a walk! I especially love the Patriot (red, white & blue) pattern.
Eat – Golden Milk from the Honest Kitchen* for Samantha. Our cat Sam is what you would call “finicky”. Getting her to eat is a constant challenge. This milk might be something that would interest her and get a few more calories into her. It is full of healthy ingredients like organic coconut milk, honey, turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger. The bonus is that if Sam decides she doesn’t like it, it’s good for dogs too (and they are not nearly as picky)!
Now for the exciting part – fill out the widget at the end of this post for chances to win these awesome prizes:
All rules are found on the widget, open to USA and Canada only. Be sure to visit us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to find the daily bonus word (it will be found in at least one of those places each day). When you’re done with that, visit these other participating blogs seen below for more chances to win!
Accidentally left the dogs around the house at night. Woke up to find the presents had been chewed on
I would say one oops moment was when baking a bag of flour dropped and before I could clean up the dogs went running through it and continued on to the living room making a small spill a bit bigger.
OK, I think that’s the funniest story I’ve read for this!! Would have loved to see that!
The year we got my sister her new puppy my cousin also got my sister a Christmas present and left it under our tree. Her puppy, who she chose to name Meeko, got to her present before she did, and ate all of it, which was half a pound of coconut balls. Now we never leave any food under the tree.
I always try to remember not to do that too!
One year, we forgot the ham in the other room and our dogs pulled it off the counter and ate the whole thing.
Oh no, I bet that led to some upset tummies. 🙁
I cant say that our dog is bad. But the cats however did ride to work with my mother ! They rode under the car in the spare wheel underneath. They returned home safely 🙂 but from now on we make sure they arent in the tire before we leave!
That’s a scary one – so glad it turned out OK!
My dog chewed up a strand of Christmas lights the first year for Christmas.
One time I heard a ruckus in the front room and my large dog Kota, who crossed the Bridge a few years ago, was attached to a string of tinsel and so was being chased by the tree. I caught both dog and tree in time so there wasn’t any damage. Needless to say that was the last year of tinsel.
Oh gosh, I can just imagine how freaked out Luke would be if that happened to him!
Our biggest holiday oops was when one of dogs got into tiny foil wrapped chocolate candy cars. Fortunately the foil slowed down the consumption and the chocolate was not dark. In the end it was all good. Thanks dog!
Yes, thank dog for that!
I already told this story on another blog in this hop, in reply to being asked to share a holiday memory. But I’ll tell it again here, lol! This holiday “oops” was with my childhood dog, a black Labrador. She LOVED visitors, and one day a holiday guest arrived wearing white pants. My dog wagged her tail so much that she left bloody stripes all over said guest’s pants – oops!
Well, you’re not supposed to wear white after Labor Day, right? That was an oops on the guest’s part. LOL
Mr. N hasn’t done anything really naughty over the holidays. I sent a package to family though and their dog ate all the chocolate that was in the package. She had to get her stomach pumped but she ended up being OK!
Oh no, that is awful. I’m so glad she was OK! That is definitely the kind of naughty we can all live without.
Got the tree all decorated wen our doggy was a pup. Of course came home and it was on the floor peed on.. We had to tether it to the floor with ropes and screws.. It stayed after that..
Flash forward years later got a new kitty.. She climbed it and knocked everything off for the dogs to chew to shreds.. Ugh..haha
Sometimes having a Christmas tree just does not go along with having pets! We have tabletop one, or we put the big tree in a room where we can close the door when we’re not home.
When we were first married and celebrating our first Christmas together, our cat, Dinsie, decided to climb the Christmas tree. Dinsie weighed 24 pounds (and he was just BIG, not fat). Of course, he knocked the tree over and almost ruined my husband’s first computer.
Wow, that’s a big kitty….no wonder the tree came down! LOL. So glad your hubby’s computer survived though!
Luma gets carsick on the long trip to family Christmas lunch/day, so one year she puked right on someone after she arrived because she was still woozy.
Oh no, that was definitely no fun for everyone involved!
So I’m terrible. We haven’t even put up a tree since we got my pup 6 years ago because we were too afraid of those holiday oops moments. So there really hasn’t been any I can think of.
“Better safe than sorry” is often a good way to go!
One Christmas my dog got into a bag of chocolate chips. His snout swelled up so much that we had to take him to the vet on Christmas Day. He turned out to be okay but it gave us a scare.
That is the worst story…sick pups are definitely scary. So glad he was OK!
We don’t all I guess, my pets haven’t made any holiday disasters ever.
You are lucky to have such well behaved pets – good job!!
Ha! Well, really they are all rescues. They come to me after the wars. We never know what, but they all seem to be very shy. No puppies, mostly seniors. Luckily my cats simply aren’t interested.
Bless you for adopting the seniors! A lack of getting into mischief is one of their strong points. 🙂
Plus they are the love experts!
That’s for sure!!
Not a big ‘oops, but we used to always hang the ball-shaped ornaments on the bottom of the tree so our cat could play with them. He was blind, so they were the easiest ones for him to find! And he had a blast.
What a sweet idea!! Our kitty Sam is blind too; I’d try this with her except she’s never really been very playful (she became blind only recently).
Our cats use to climb in the Christmas tree and knock the ornaments off and they would be scattered all over the house.
Christmas is all about “the kids” having fun, right? 🙂
Believe it or not I have 4 cats and they’ve never touched any decorations, including the tree. They are truly my angels!
They are indeed!! ♥
I left my basement door open thinking my dog wouldn’t touch the presents..well when I called her and she didn’t come I ran into my basement to see eaten boxes…ripped wrapping paper and she had ribbon and wrapping paper hanging out of her mouth with a half eaten doggy cookie on the carpet and a piece in her mouth. Smart pup too as the gifts she opened were only hers and treat gifts. I guess she smelled her treats. Sadly she has gone to Rainbow Bridge but I will forever have this sweet memory and the reminder to close that door..I have to rescue pups now..no early unwrapping gifts for them ..lol
Dogs are definitely a “live and learn” proposition, aren’t they? I’m sorry for your loss….but happy that you have filled your life with rescues now. ♥
Oh yes I agree with you..Thank you for you kind words . It was very hard losing Puddles. It was our love for her and what we thought she would have wanted us to do that we went down the rescue road. My husband and I felt if she could tell us anything ..to let us know how to best honour her memory it would be to give a homeless dog all we gave her. In our hearts we knew this and that’s what we did. I like to think she’s watching over us and that she’s very proud of us and happy that we are making the lives better for not just one rescue but two. Our hearts are full of love for our sweet boys that are here with us now and for our beloved Puddles who is at Rainbow 🌈 ❤️
Oh yes, I am sure Puddles definitely approves of the way you have honored her. ♥
Thank you for saying that..I really hope so ❤️
On Rosh hashana one year my little one ate half a cake off the counter.
Your little one must have good reach! 🙂
If there is food close to the edge she’ll nudge it somehow close to her! No more food on the counter in my kitchen unattended!
They keep us challenged when they’re so smart!!
I seem to remember our family dog peeing on the Christmas tree a few times. LOL. Well, can’t expect them to know our logic for bringing trees indoors! 😉
So true. Sometimes I think we expect too much of dogs. Dogs will be dogs, right? 🙂
I am sure our dog got to the table and ate a couple of desserts around the holidays.
If they went missing, I can see where the dog would be a prime suspect. 🙂
Gambler of course takes a lick of the pie before others get to eat it.
Of course he does!! 🙂
My cat ruined a brand new plant we got in the first day… 🙁
Well, as long as it wasn’t anything harmful to your cat. Having a sick cat along with ruining your nice plant would not make for a happy holiday season!
I went traveling with my cat via airplane. On the way there, I sprayed her carrier with calming spray and she was fine, albeit a little nervous. On the way back, I didn’t think I didn’t have the calming spray and thought I could bring her back without it…oops. She peed in the middle of the airport and it dripped out of the carrier and down my leg. I only had 2 napkins to wipe it up with and I was near a shuttle where there were no food places around from which to get more napkins. I managed to wipe it up so no one would slip on it, and I definitely learned my lesson – I will always be using the calming spray from now on!
I feel sure you will never, ever forget that again!! 🙂
I made donuts for Hanukkah and instead of sprinkling icing sugar on top LOL I sprinkled baking soda so we had to throw out over 20 donuts and I had to start all over again
Oh no – donuts aren’t the easiest thing to make either, are they? I miss my Mom’s homemade donuts!
We Adopted Teddy in October (five years ago), by late October I was preparing my tradiotinal english christmas cakes. I left two sticks of butter on the counter to soften and they disappered! Two hours later they were vomitted up on the carpet, wrappers and all! Teddy know better now…and so do I!
Oh gosh, Luke would totally do that! He is obsessed with butter, and we have to be so careful about keeping it out of reach. I have to let him lick the wrapper whenever I open a new stick! 🙂
i dont think we have a good holiday oops story!
Well, that is a good thing!!
My biggest oops was the cat knocking over the tree. It happened in the middle of the night and woke us from a dead sleep.
Getting woken from a dead sleep is the worst…especially if you didn’t know what the huge crash was at first!
I hadn’t heard of much of your list! What great ideas. My kitties are pretty spoiled too 🙂
Sometimes I think we know too much as pet bloggers – we see too many cool things we want for our pets!
What an impressive list!
Thanks. Now if only I could really afford all that stuff! LOL
My biggest oops would be thinking I could leave her presents wrapped under the tree and she wouldn’t notice them! She found them and practically knocked down the tree to get to them and started unwrapping all of them! I had to quickly grab them away from her! I did end up giving her one of them though early b/c I felt bad LOL!
Oh, now that is funny! What a smart girl!!
my dog always pees on the christmas tree every year. I get it because he always pees on trees outside but really!!!?? We have tried to put something around the tree to make it not do it but he always ends up getting it!
You may have to get an artificial tree? 🙂
never really had any since we dont decorate for Christmas, dont celebrate. the biggest opps are the dead leaves taken out of the planters, the stuffing taken out of the beds and toys.
That’s almost year round fun! 🙂
My best memory is that my husband would put jingle bells on our first pair of dogs, and take them running early on Christmas morning. It sounded like Santa’s sleigh!
I don’t quite understand the gift game but I’ll try reading it again when I’m less tired.
Now that sounds like fun!!
My brain has trouble comprehending things when it’s tired too. 🙂
My dog that I had when my kids were little, he hiked his leg up on the tree each time he walked by it! It was awful that year.
Oh no! Definitely not fun at all.
The biggest oops was probably when one of the dogs decides to go potty on the tree skirt.
I’ve seen that comment a few times now – guess that happens a lot!
My pets are pretty good…. I don’t really have any holiday oops stories!
Lucky you!! 🙂
My dog plucked all the ornaments off the tree within his reach lol and ran off making it a game.
We used to play that game a lot too! Now I get a small tabletop tree!
My pets are pretty good about leaving the decorations and gifts alone, thankfully.
You are one of the lucky ones! 🙂
Those are great gift ideas! We just bought ourselves a treadmill so maybe our boys need to hop on board. LOL!
You could exercise together – fun!!
I was a kid and it was Thanksgiving. My husky stood up to reach the table, stole the ENTIRE turkey, and ran outside. I thought it was hilarious. My mom was furious.
Oh my gosh!! That’s definitely one of those funny/not funny stories!
Before my dog was completely potty training, his first Christmas, he actually peed on some of the Christmas presents.
Yikes, that is not good! Our beagle puppy pooped under the tree at a family party. The funny thing is that he was not our dog then, he was my hubby’s brother’s, he didn’t come to live with us until over a year later!
Our dog chewed open a present and ate it. It was Burt’s Bees Chapstick.
Well, thank goodness it was an all natural, safer product! 🙂
My cat is obsessed with string/ribbon and chewing it and eating it which is a big no so we always have to keep the presents up high on a table. My cat, thankfully, never jumps on anything higher than a bed/couch – never goes on tables, countertops, etc.. so it’s an easy solution.
A cat that doesn’t jump up on furniture – now that’s a find! 🙂
That is a great giveaway! Your Monday sure beats our black Friday!
Giveaway Monday is definitely better…especially when you can do it from the comfort of your home. 🙂
Luckily our biggest holiday oops did not involve or hurt our dogs. We used to own a three story house in Philadelphia with very high ceilings.
We bought a stunning 11 foot tall tree and put it up next to the stairs so you could walk up and admire it all the way to the top. We wondered if we should tie it to the walls but decided not to.
In the middle of the night, we heard the tinkling of our crystal chandelier (yes, it was a pretty amazing, Victorian house) and a large whoomp. It was the Christmas tree falling over and busting nearly all of Mike’s glass ornaments he inherited from his family.
Broke his heart.
I’m just glad neither of our dogs were responsible or nearby to get glass in their paws.
Oh no, poor Mike! That sounds like a gorgeous house! I bet that tree looked spectacular, to start with anyway!
I can’t think of a holiday oops that involved the dogs, but the one that does come to mind is when I tried to make chocolate frosting and it ended up not looking very appetizing at all!
I just made an apple pie like that for Thanksgiving! LOL. Luckily it still tasted good, the crust just didn’t look pretty.
Growing up, our dog peed on the presents under the tree. My VHS copy of “Lady and the Tramp” the plastic was rippled from my mom trying to clean it LOL
Oh no! That is definitely not good! 🙂
I ordered a mocha from Starbucks from my usual go to…a white chocolate mocha…and when I took a sip and started walking away, I was like uhm no this isn’t a white chocolate mocha. I went back to the counter and told them and the guy looked confused. He said miss you ordered a mocha not a white chocolate mocha. I felt so stupid. I’m just so use to ordering one that I forgot that quick lol
last year i accidentally locked the cats in the garage and they unraveled 3 rolls of wrapping paper
Sounds like they kept themselves quite entertained! 🙂
My dog jumped on our Christmas tree once and broke a few ornaments.
That’s why I try to use mostly unbreakable ornaments!
Wow, Rita wishes she’d get 4 presents! She usually gets 2 – one toy, one edible. (She’s not a destroyer, so her toys last ages! Probably skip the toys this year and just get her two edible prezzies. Which I’m sure she’ll enjoy!)
Good luck to everyone who enters!
Cricket would be happy with just some edibles too, and maybe a new ball (like she doesn’t already have at least a dozen!).
I’m enjoying reading everyone’s posts because I’m getting some awesome ideas for gifts.
I know, me too! The wish list just keeps getting longer….
I’ve often wondered about the treadmills. I think it would scare Torrey.
That is definitely a concern with Luke too. I think it would be looooonnngggg learning process! LOL
No big story for me. my little dog likes to chew bows on packages so I have a tree on a table and put presents there to keep out of reach of my little guy 🙂
We had a cat that did that too! 🙂
I love the puzzle… and the mama could need the treadmill after all that ice cream, she has to use with waddling on 4 legs right? ;o)
I think we all need that treadmill after the holidays!